a bit of a nasty surprise, not helped by being in france on holiday!

very sympathetic service manager, "Its a well known common fault"

he is going to contact LR UK for a contribution to cost, what effect does this "known fault" have on second hand values, also does anyone know if the diff has been uprated to prevent premature failure of the replacement?
ta
dismay, its a great vehicle but......

Unlucky!
Could you give more details about your car ie MY and did you own it from new?

its 1st reg dec 2010
2nd owner
hse sd4
i bought it with less than 20k its now on 34k miles
more concerned about how long the new diff will last the more i think about it!

Im sure disregarding LR service shedule would help. Change the oil regularly.
Recently done all my running gear oils and found it quite amusing that the auto gearbox oil from LR only had a shelf life until 2018.
So following that logic , oil in a sealed bottle on the shelf only lasts a few years but put it in the gearbox expose it to stress, temperature and contamination and it will last forever

stuck here with little to do as weather is not great had a look on the telegrapgh "honest john" section for what he has to say about the freelander, rather wish I had read all this before buying the car!

He describes " an epidemic" of rear diff failures, and ascribes a possible cause to the fact that the rear diff is mostly "dragged along" by the front as the rear wheels are rarely used to actually drive he car.

so, is this a case of engaging the special traction features and driving " grass mud and snow" mode more often on tarmac??

should owners have to do this sort of thing to protect a vehicle??


http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/land-...tion=good/

Concerning that many of these things seem to be showing up on the late 2010 early 2011 models, which of course I have 😜 FL2 TD4 GS 60 reg Facelift - tailgate paint issues, fuel gauge rewire, transfer box failure at 36k miles, clutch at 60k
Reconditioned diff at 70k ish
Sold at 84k and now on a DS. Terribly unreliable.
Sold DS for a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Fingers crossed....
Sold Outlander for a 2014 SD4 SE Tech because I’m mental
Now greatly regret selling the Outlander. MPG of the FL2 is atrocious and so are the fuel bills. Fun though 😎

Im new to freelanders but not Landrovers. Mine has done 100k and no trace of Diff issues in the service records. I believe that Landrover did do some software changes to the Haldex units which control the amount of torque going to the rear Diff.
You will only ever read about the negatives on the internet, im sure there are plenty of owners hopefully the vast majority without Diff issues

My fl2 registered in April 2013. I am 2nd owner bought with 30K on the clock and after hearing diff. failure I am quite worried too.
Have you done much off-road, towed caravan? I also think different tyres could cause lot of stress to the diif. Hope you get some contribution from LR.

Mine went at the same mileage on a Nov 2009 model. Tried the bearing replacement, but it weeped oil almost immediately, so diff replacement was the only way to go. Land Rover and the dealer were great, but it was serviced religiously at an authorised dealer...

russtic wrote:

"honest john" ... ascribes a possible cause to the fact that the rear diff is mostly "dragged along" by the front as the rear wheels are rarely used to actually drive he car.

Quote:

so, is this a case of engaging the special traction features and driving " grass mud and snow" mode more often on tarmac??

ricky64 wrote:

Im sure disregarding LR service shedule would help. Change the oil regularly.
Recently done all my running gear oils and found it quite amusing that the auto gearbox oil from LR only had a shelf life until 2018.
So following that logic , oil in a sealed bottle on the shelf only lasts a few years but put it in the gearbox expose it to stress, temperature and contamination and it will last forever

ricky64 wrote:

So following that logic , oil in a sealed bottle on the shelf only lasts a few years but put it in the gearbox expose it to stress, temperature and contamination and it will last forever

I cant see any reason not to change the running gear oils regularly, Rear diff under 1lt, front dif/tbox/bevel gear call you what you want, but under 1 ltr. Im sure i read Volvo use the same front dif/tbox and they have a tech bulliten for their technitions on how to drill and tap a drain plug to make oil changes easier, The autobox is used by Ford and they dont take the sealed for life aproach to serviceing

quick update
JLR offered contribution of 50% cost
the official party line is that the replacement diff has an uprated bearing, so should not re-occur, also the repair will update transmission software also the repair will be " a robust" one which will solve the problem...

well, of course only time will tell on that....

they did not address the issue of reduced trade in values....

as i am stuck here in the middle of french "no where" its rather difficult to hang on for a better contribution,

having said that all the people I have dealt with have been genuinely trying to help me, so a big thanks for that to JLR and the local dealership

car should be ready on friday afternoon....will be test driving it to check it has gone all quiet!!!

it gets better!
dealer now says its transfer box at £500 more than rear diff replacement was going to be, still only 50% contribution from jlr
hmm
will be interested to see if this is a cure coz if not I will be asking them to take it off and put the old one back